The short, sharp shock that’s with you for life

Nothing makes you feel more grateful to have grown up in England than listening to Scots of a certain age discussing their schooldays. The only corporal punishment I remember was the occasional bad boy getting tapped on the hand with a ruler. In Scotland, however, beatings were carried out on an industrial scale with a specialist heavy leather tawse until the Eighties.

Recently, I’ve heard several people — urbane, well-adjusted men in their seventies — talking about what it was like to be beaten unfairly and sadistically. The mental scars were evident. They were quiet, bright kids. But they were belted if they didn’t understand their homework, belted if they achieved less than half marks in anything, and belted for being late even if they dashed into…